


It's Been a Long, Long, Time

by LizaWithAZed



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Reality, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-14
Updated: 2012-07-30
Packaged: 2017-10-31 03:53:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/339595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizaWithAZed/pseuds/LizaWithAZed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido, agents of Prospit and Derse. They once fought on the battlefield as their respective nemeses, only to be united by a common epiphany - the truth behind the Ultimate Riddle. Gazing upon the Skaian clouds, the secrets of the past, present, and future are now well guarded by these strange sentinels who spread enlightenment through their cryptic music and dance. Together, they hope their songs may be a beacon to all those who undertake the Riddle."</p><p>This is the story of how they came to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Homestuck and its associated settings and characters are the property of Andrew Hussie; Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido were created by Michael Guy Bowman and Tavia Morra. All are used here entirely without permission but entirely with respect. This is for love, not for money.

Session 1

The actual first session of what goes by many names but can generally be called “The Game” is so shrouded in the mists of time as to be practically apocryphal. All that can be definitively said is that while each session starts with the same basic archetypes in play, those archetypes can and have changed over time, usually based on prototypes introduced by players and kept in subsequent sessions for reasons hidden in the twisting code of The Game itself.

A little known fact is that not all deviations and developments come solely from the players. Some merely emerge.

All of the above is to serve as clarification that by “session one” what is meant is the first session that at the precise same moment two agents - one Pospitian male and one Dersite female – opened their eyes in their respective ectobiology tanks and were welcomed into existence in the war that forms reality.

His name, taken from fragments of the host species’ language and culture, was designated as Mobius Trip. Bright and boisterous, a singer of songs and a lover of travel. A true son of the gold and blue, the shining kingdom of light. A bringer of joy and a lightener of hearts. To hear his laughing voice was to know Prospit, and love it.

Her name, derived by the same process, was Hadron Kaleido. Mysterious and silent, a swift stalker and lover of puzzles. A true daughter of the red and violet, the dark kingdom of shadows. An enchanter of hearts and a bringer of deadly peace. To see her killing dance was to know Derse, and respect it.

As what was to be always, they first met on the battlefield. As always, they were perfectly matched. In that first encounter (as in many of the subsequent ones) they killed each other. Not remotely a surprising or remarkable outcome of the meeting of two complementary Agents of the opposing kingdoms.

The remarkable part was what happened next: as they lay dying next to each other, they gazed up into the clouds. And in their final moment, came to the same realization: they were not so different. This realization came too late to do much of anything about it, though for the remainder of that session, soldiers of both sides told the tale of the bodies found on the battlefield: man and woman, pospitian and dersite laying facing each other, hands entwined so tightly they could not be separated, fingers forming a grid like the ground they lay on: black and white and inexorably linked.


	2. Chapter 2

Session 413

It’s in the nature of The Game to be repetitive: as stated each session starts with the same basic archetypes in play, and - modified by the actions of the players, of course - similar patterns tend to play out. The Gathering of the Four Agents. The Uprising. The Betrayal of the Regnant. And - in the set of sessions this narrative is concerned with - the Duet on the Field of Battle.

The First Meeting of Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido.

While practice makes perfect and to repeat an action over and over is to learn from the past and hone and grow, such is not usually the nature of The Game, given that each session is separate and memory does not persist. But the case of these two is not usual.

Four hundred and thirteen times, Prospit and Derse’s two favoured children met on the field of battle. Four hundred and thirteen times, his parry to her fatal knife-thrust impaled them both and they fell together to the ground. Four hundred and twelve times, they both experienced a vision of unity - of peace - in the clouds above mere seconds before dying and locked hands.

The four hundred and thirteenth time, their eyes met as they fell, and widened in shock.

“You,” they whispered to each other in unison “I remember you.” This time when they gazed up together at the clouds as they bled out onto the patchwork ground of Skaia, their realization was not a silent one. They spoke of it to each other, and of what they could see, just drifting out of reach in the sky. Just before they died he sang to her, and she stroked his head - each trying to comfort the other.

This time when the bodies were found, they were wrapped around each other in an embrace, tears still wet on both their faces.

In the last moments of their lives they had fallen in love.

They’ve fallen in love in every session since.


	3. Chapter 3

Session 612

Dozens of sessions passed. In each, the Agents met, fought, killed, and fell in love an instant too late. But in each successive session, as could almost be expected at this point the moment of recognition came a fraction of a fraction of a second earlier and earlier until finally, it came before that fatal thrust that each failed to parry never came.

“You,” they said for the one hundred and ninety-ninth time, “I remember you.” They stopped and stared at each other for a time, as the battle raged about them on the plains of Skaia.

“What now?” Mobius asked, and Hadron shrugged, smiling secretively. A curious look crossed her features and she pointed at the clouds above them.

“Oh, yes,” Mobius said in sudden realization, and smiled broadly. Already he could feel stirrings of affection for this oddly beautiful dersite. She opened her mouth to reply, but before she could speak, the giant club of a Dersite castle-warrior came bearing down on Mobius. Hadron nimbly leaped on Mobius and pulled them both to safety. He looked at the crater where they had just been standing numbly and turned to her. “Why…” he asked, and in response she kissed him briefly but passionately. Mobius’ eyes widened and then slid closed as he remembered fully who she was and how he loved her.

“We need to go” Hadron whispered urgently, and he nodded, letting her lead him away from the battlefield.

They stopped on a tall hill, isolated from most of the skirmishes. They lay down in the soft grass on the hilltop, side by side, and as before gazed up in the clouds, telling each other what they could see and what they thought it meant. In the fleeting stolen peace they had found away from death, Mobius sang to Hadron, and Hadron danced for him. As the battle raged on, light from the explosions glinted off her ebony frame, and Mobius found himself helpless. He moved towards her and embraced her.

There on the hillside, for the first of many times in many worlds Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido made love.


	4. Chapter 4

Session 1025

For hundreds of sessions, the lovers met, fell in love, and abandoned their posts. In many they were hunted down and killed as fugitives from the twin kingdoms. In many they escaped with the waves of exiles from the reckonings and lived as the Meandering Troubadour and Hermetical Kinestheticin some they even participated in the decisive battle against the black king and it’s rumoured in one they were allowed to share in the ultimate reward and were reborn into the new universe.

But eventually there came the session where, after their joining together on the hilltop, Hadron turned to Mobius and asked “You remember it all now, don’t you?”

He nodded in reply, and kissed her shoulder, though his face kept a thoughtful expression.

“All of it,” Hadron stressed, and Mobius nodded again.

“Every one. Every time we’ve met, every time we’ve,” and here he paused and they smirked at each other before he continued, “loved, every time we’ve fought, and…” he broke off and sighed heavily.

Hadron took his chin in her hand and turned him gently to look her in the eyes. “Every time we’ve died,” she finished for him. Mobius nodded, and Hadron kissed him. “I’m sick of it,” she said.

“Me too,” Mobius sighed, and then turned to her curiously. “I know you well enough my love, to know when you’re thinking something. What are you planning?”

Hadron frowned thoughtfully. “It’s not a plan yet,” she said, “more an idea. It all depends on if you feel we’ve gained all we can from our experiences. If you think we’re ready to share what we’ve learned.”

“Oh I don’t think we’ll ever have gained all we can,” Mobius said with a thoughtful smirk, “but enough to share, yes. Yes I do. We’re ready for an audience. But we’ve done that before, for exiles. You’ve got something else in mind, I think.”

Hadron ginned and nodded. “We’re taking this show on the road, Mobius my love,” she said, and pointed towards the outer ring.

Together they made their plan, honed and practiced their songs until it was time for them to leave the previously endless cycle of death and rebirth. Using their memories from over a thousand previous sessions, they were able to avoid every trap, every fatal misstep and successfully wait until just the right opportunity presented itself and they were able to seize it. In a stolen troop carrier, fitted with experimental shields by an ambitious dersite arch-agent and later captured and fitted with the most powerful propulsion drive by Prospitian engineers, Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido set out for the outer ring and sessions beyond, there to perpetually wander the from Game to Game, spreading their message.

Sharing the truth of the ultimate riddle for any wise enough to decode it.


	5. Chapter 5

Session 0

 

Everything to this point has been the truth, based in fact. But if we delve further into the story of Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido, we enter the realm of legend, myth, and rumour. One such tale hints that the first session that they awoke in was not their first; that before they were agents of Prospit and Derse, they were players of the game themselves. They went by different names and knew nothing of Prospit, Derse, Skaia and the great Game, save what whispers she heard and visions he saw in dreams. They met in adolescence, it's likely, and it's unquestionably certain they fell in love. He played music for her, and she danced. More than that, who can say? But at some point they entered the game together and played. Some versions say it was a doomed session, and through unknown means - a bargain with some dark power, perhaps – they were reborn into the next as pawns of the game, eventually escaping through their love for each other. Others claim that they were victorious, and in gaining the answer to the ultimate riddle, they eschewed the prize of divinity in their newly created universe, opting for transference into the game itself to help others gain the insight they sought and won. Either way, they found their destiny in each other, slowly gathering wisdom and power through the sessions until they escaped the cycle of death and rebirth to spread their message. 

 

In some versions of the story they gain followers: the Grey Lancer, deadly with a bow and able to cause the most stoic to weep when he plays. The Child of Stars, able to cause flashing lights and hypnotizing rhythms to fall from his fingertips. The Kin of Games, master of disguises and illusions, laughing one moment and deadly serious the next. And the Two-Who-Are-One, The Lord of Steam and the Lady of Shade, who can use any instrument they lay hands upon, and are said to call music from the air itself by waving their hands. All of them deeply loyal to The Bard of Light and Muse of Heart, guardians of The Riddle, Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido.

 

Some deny they exist, but the echos of them are found throughout paradox space, from incipisphere to incipisphere: depictions in sketches, murals, and even clothing, varied but along recognizable lines, stories told on the battlefield and ruined planets by exiles, and most of all, scattered everywhere for those who look for it, eternal and unchanging, their music. The answers to all the riddles in all the worlds are there, if you listen hard enough.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a character in this chapter who is neither male nor female. The pronouns they/them/their have been used for this character. They are not a typo, nor a grammatical error.
> 
> Also I feel the need to add that this chapter (like all the ones before it and everything I have ever written or will write for these characters, only even more so in this case) is dedicated to Michael and Tavia with love, gratitude, respect, friendship, awe, and about a thousand other things but especially love.

Session 1111

“…is all that true?” the small Prospitian boy asked the storyteller as they sat by the campfire. Various exiles had gathered around.

“True as any story” the older Prospitian replied, and threw another log on the fire as his Dersite companion cuddled up to him.

“It’s true!” a small Dersite broke in, “I’ve seen them! I’ve heard the songs! Follower here has too,” he continued, nudging his shrouded Prospitian friend, who nodded distractedly but didn’t take their eyes off the storyteller.

“Have you figured out the Riddle?” the storyteller’s companion asked in a soft but amused voice.

“Nah,” the Dersite began, then gaped in shock at his friend when they nodded.

“Do tell,” the storyteller said in a quieter, more serious voice than the one he’d been using, and the Dersite realized with a shock that he recognized it from somewhere, though maddeningly enough he couldn’t place it.

“It’s love.” the Lovelorn Follower said softly, “love is the answer.”

Their Dersite friend rolled his eyes, “it’s not that simple, it can’t be”

They shook their head. “No,” they said “it’s not simple at all.” They looked up to see the storyteller looking back at em, one blue eye and one amber in the Prospitian face, and in those eyes the wisdom of over a thousand lifetimes. He nodded, and they nodded back.

“Good,” the storyteller said, standing up abruptly, pulling back his shabby cloak to reveal a uniform of Blue and Gold, adorned with the sigil of Light. His companion tossed her cloak aside and stood beside him, the violet and red highlights of her uniform all that kept the rest of her inky black raiment from blending into the starlit night.

“You understand,” she said, and blew them a kiss as the assembled exiles all sat or stood in shock, mouths agape., then she and her companion walked off into the darkness surrounding the camp.

The Lovelorn Follower came to their senses quicker then the others, stood, and called after the two figures “Wait! What do I do, now that I know? I can’t make music, not like you can!”

“I should have thought that was obvious,” Mobius Trip’s voice echoed back to the circle of firelight.

“Tell our stories, love,” Hadron Kaleido replied. “Tell our stories.”


End file.
